A gasket is a mechanical seal which fills the space between two or more mating surfaces, generally to prevent leakage from or into the jointed objects while under compression. Gaskets come in many shapes and sizes and are often cut or punched from a flat material. An O-ring is a form of gasket in the shape of a torus and is generally formed as a loop of elastomeric material with a round cross-section.
It is usually desirable that a gasket be made from a material that is, to some extent, yielding such that it is able to deform and tightly fill the space for which it is designed, including any slight irregularities. Gaskets for specific applications, such as high pressure steam systems, may include asbestos. Some (piping) gaskets are made entirely of metal and rely on a seating surface to accomplish the seal. However, most gaskets are made from paper, rubber, silicone, metal, cork, felt, neoprene, nitrile rubber, fiberglass, polytetrafluoroethylene (aka PTFE or Teflon) or a plastic polymer.
Energy harvesting (also known as power harvesting or energy scavenging) is the process by which energy is derived from external sources (e.g., solar, thermal energy, wind energy, salinity gradients, and kinetic energy), is captured and stored. Energy harvesting devices converting ambient energy into electrical energy have attracted much interest in both the military and commercial sectors. Some systems convert motion, such as that of ocean waves, into electricity to be used by oceanographic monitoring sensors for autonomous operation. Future applications may include high power output devices (or arrays of such devices) deployed at remote locations to serve as reliable power stations for large systems. Another application is in wearable electronics, where energy harvesting devices can power or recharge cellphones, mobile computers, radio communication equipment, etc. All of these devices must be sufficiently robust to endure long-term exposure to hostile environments and have a broad range of dynamic sensitivity to exploit the entire spectrum of wave motions.
Conventional energy harvesting apparatus are relatively large and bulky and are designed to provide considerable amounts of power, e.g. to recharge a cell phone. Such apparatus tend not to address the micro-sensor market which have very small form factors and which require very little power.
“SensorCS” cylinder-head gasket technology “integrates pressure and temperature sensors directly into gaskets.” The SensorCS gaskets are described on-line by DANA Automotive. AZT online describes “SensoriCS” cylinder head gaskets with integrated temperature sensors. To the extent that these references are understood, it would appear that passive sensors, e.g. thermocouples and/or piezoelectric materials, are embedded in a gasket that is provided with a tab or dongle to allow the sensors to be connected to testing or monitoring equipment. There is no reference to the use of active components, energy generation devices, or wireless communication apparatus embedded within the gaskets.
These and other limitations of the prior art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the following descriptions and a study of the several figures of the drawing.